My Best Moments of 2017: films, music and other stuff…

What with the depressing political mess we found ourselves in throughout 2017, which tended to privilege prejudice over reason, brazen deceit over factual truths, personal profit over compassion for others, and the short-term gains of the present over the long-term requirements of the future, it could be difficult to find cause for hope. But that is where the arts, as so often, proved helpful, proffering humanity, intelligence, understanding, articulacy, even beauty, all of which seemed to be in short supply in the political arena and much of the media. But lest this is starting to sound like a rant from a terminally grumpy old man, let me say here and now that I found a great deal to enjoy in both film and music.

Particularly heartening, in a year when we’ve witnessed the shocking but sadly perhaps not so very surprising revelations of widespread sexual abuse and exploitation in the arts and entertainment worlds (and, of course, more or less everywhere else), was the number of terrific films made by women; while there’s still a long way to go before proper equality of opportunity is achieved, things are clearly beginning to move in the right direction. The same, despite the risibly reactionary statements of certain establishment males, might be said of ‘classical’ music, where women conductors, composers and performers galore have been proving over and over that their artistry is without question as fine in every regard as that of their male counterparts. In many cases, of course, it has been finer.

So here, for the record, are some of the highlights of my own personal 2017. I haven’t counted, but I imagine I saw almost 200 movies and attended 100 or so concerts, most of them ‘classical’. Because I saw many of the films at festivals, quite a few of them are probably yet to come your way, so do look out for them. Just don’t watch them on your phone; they deserve better than that!

As for the music, be it classical, jazz or whatever, the performers listed are formidable musicians; again, if you get a chance to see them play live, I advise you to take it, or failing that, to check them out some other way. (I still mainly go down the CD route myself; it’s better for me, and better for the musicians involved.)

I do hope that some of the stuff mentioned below will help to brighten your 2018 as much as it brightened my 2017.

Film

25 films that premiered this year (very roughly in order of preference)